Bangladesh Refuses to Issue Passport to Sheikh Hasina for Return Home

Bangladeshi authorities rejected a request submitted by exiled former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for a passport and national identity card to return from India, stating that instead, she should be handed over to face the death sentence issued against her.

Amin Islam, the Prosecutor General of Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal, said in Dhaka on Tuesday: “Under the Passport Act, if a defendant evades judicial proceedings or remains at large, a passport cannot be issued in their name.”

Amin Islam added that Hasina cannot legally return to Bangladesh except through extradition under a treaty signed between Bangladesh and India in 2013.

The International Crimes Tribunal sentenced Hasina to death last November for committing “crimes against humanity” during the mass student-led uprising in 2024 that ended her 15-year rule.

The 79-year-old Hasina has been living in India since fleeing Bangladesh on a military aircraft on August 5, 2024. According to United Nations estimates, the violence accompanying the uprising resulted in the deaths of 1,400 people and injured thousands more.

India’s Hindustan Times reported that Hasina’s lawyers, based in London, had written to the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi requesting a new passport and national identity card. The newspaper described this request as the clearest step so far toward implementing her declared intention to return.

However, Amin Islam stated that she had been at large even before her conviction.

He added: “An arrest warrant was issued for her extradition, and a notice was published in newspapers. She evaded the judicial proceedings brought against her.”